Mixed Tape: Side A
by KayleeThePete
Summary: Revamp of my story by the same name. Felicity ended up making a few less than clean hacks after Cooper's supposed death and ends up being coerced into working for ARGUS, and Amanda has the PERFECT partner for her... "So…how did you end up in this indentured servitude?" "I died." "Well, that's illuminating." Cross-posted on AO3.


So, I know some will be annoyed that I'm revamping this story rather than posting a new chapter on the old version or for one of my other stories. I promise there's a LOT of new stuff in this chapter and in the rest of the chapters. All of the stuff that was in the old version will also be in this version there will just be a bunch of new stuff! If you're still coming along for this ride thank you SO much for staying with me through all of the long waits and now revamping the story. I'm sorry the writing will likely continue to be slow, I'm in my final semester of law school, so classes, job/LLM program hunts and preparing for the bar take priority, but I am NOT giving up on this story, there is SO MUCH planned for it and I hope you enjoy the new parts and everything that will happen!

For any new readers, the genesis of this story is back when Goth!Felicity was introduced, my dartie, SassySnow1988, and I fangirlled over how awesome she was and wondered what it would be like if she and Oliver had met back when she was a goth. The idea was born: what if Felicity didn't handle Cooper's supposed suicide so well? What if this led to her getting in Waller's sights and she was paired up with Oliver in Hong Kong? Here was the result.

The title of the story is from the song "Mixed Tape" by Jack's Mannequin. Each chapter will be titled after a song, this one is "Bones" by MS MR.

Disclaimer: I do not own Arrow, or any part of the DCTV Arrowverse, nor do I own the songs Mixed Tape or Bones, they are all the property of their respective owners. No profit is being made off the production of this work, it is solely for entertainment.

Dartie, you are the literal BEST! ;-*

-ARROW-

**Mixed Tape  
Chapter 1: Bones**

Dig up her bones but leave the soul alone  
Boy with a broken soul  
Heart with a gaping hole  
Dark twisted fantasy turned to reality  
Kissing death and losing my breath  
Midnight hours cobble street passages  
Forgotten savages, forgotten savages

Dig up her bones but leave the soul alone  
Let her find a way to a better place  
Broken dreams and silent screams  
Empty churches with soulless curses  
We found a way to escape the day

Dig up her bones but leave the soul alone  
Lost in the pages of self-made cages  
Life slips away and the ghosts come to play  
These are hard times  
These are hard times for dreamers  
And love lost believers

Candybar creep show  
My highs hit a new low  
Marinate in misery  
Like a girl of only 17  
Man-made madness  
And the romance of sadness  
A beautiful dance that happened by chance  
Happened by chance, happened by chance

Felicity strode briskly down the hallway, a clipboard held tight to her chest—conveniently obscuring the I.D. badge she wore—and forcing herself to smile and nod as she passed doctors, nurses and patients.

"If you look like you know where you're going, like you belong, people are less likely to question you. Don't do anything memorable, but still interact a little, because not doing so can be just as memorable."

Oliver's lessons echoed in her mind with every step through the hospital. It'd been so long since she'd put her undercover skills to any use, but now, adorned in pink scrubs; a scratchy, though quite realistic-looking brunette wig; and contacts, which she was no longer used to wearing with any consistency—she was already missing the comforting weight of her two-toned glasses—she drudged his words back to the surface and acted her heart out. Oliver would probably scold her for using what he'd taught her for such a frivolous purpose though, but only after kissing her senseless…and then continue to kiss her senseless after he said so.

At least she hoped he would. It'd been almost as long since she'd seen him last as when she'd last been undercover. And no one knew better than the two of them how much time could change someone.

Ever since that Chinese news report showed up in her inbox three days ago—before the news ever broke here in the States and he was simply a man found on a deserted island in the North China Sea—she'd known that he was finally coming home.

And then she'd waited.

After all of the waiting she'd already done, the few days it took for him to arrive in Starling should've been a cinch. It'd been hell.

Just to try to keep herself occupied she'd planned this little "infiltration" out. It'd taken less than a day to go over the floor plan and craft a disguise, and faking the I.D. badge had only taken an hour or so of the next day—the hospital really should look into getting better digital and physical security. Maybe she'd send them an anonymous tip later, after she'd safely exited and scrubbed any trace of herself from the pathetic amount of security cameras, of course.

To calm her mounting nerves, Felicity mentally counted down the room numbers to his, though this didn't succeed in silencing all the worries running through her mind on repeat.

What if he wasn't Oliver anymore? What if he doesn't recognize her? What if…what if he didn't love her anymore?

There it was, her greatest fear, the one she'd been trying so very hard to silence. They were all honestly probably silly fears, it had only been a few months since she'd had to leave him in Russia after all, but she couldn't help her insecurities creeping up on her, regardless of the fact that they'd been together for nearly three years.

Her knuckles blanched as she gripped the clipboard tighter, struggling to maintain her just a normal-nurse-on-her-rounds persona.

And then there it was. His door. She edged her way in front of the tiny window in the door, peeking into the room until…there he was. Her breath caught. He was facing away from her, looking out the window at what she knew would be an impressive night vista of the city, and though she could only see his back she knew it was him without a shadow of a doubt, even with the close-cropped hair cut—she had to admit she was glad to finally see that shaggy mane gone, though it'd been admittedly necessary when they were with ARGUS and in Russia. His posture, it was exactly the same, a relaxed façade that disguised his constant vigilance, the fact that he was ready to spring into action at any second. Her gaze scanned over his back, following where she knew scars ran to the spot with Shado's tattoo, wondering what new marks he'd gained in her absence.

Trepidation warred with excitement and she couldn't get her hand to move the few inches to the final obstacle between them. She knew she couldn't keep standing out there, if someone passed by it'd draw attention to her, and she'd never get to do what she came here for. But she'd also never been more nervous in her entire life. Felicity closed her eyes, counted two heartbeats, took the deepest, most bracing breath that she ever had, then twisted the handle and pushed the door open. She saw how he stiffened at the sound of her intrusion, every muscle coiling in preparation to counter any possible attack. Swallowing, she leaned back against the door, closing it.

If she'd been anyone else, if she wasn't so attuned to every single nuance of him, if she hadn't known him as well as she did, she would've missed the changes that followed. He froze, every muscle aside from his lungs utterly unmoving as he took a deep breath—taking in her scent, she knew—and then came the contradiction, the relaxing of his guard in a way she'd only seen him do around her, but also the tension that ran through him, hardly daring to believe she was there. He spun on the spot, and Felicity forgot how to breathe.

Holy Moses, she thought she could never forget how intense his gaze was…she was an idiot—which said a lot, considering she was a literal genius.

"Felicity." The way he said her name…how could he turn her legs to jelly and have fire running through her veins just by saying her name? No one said her name the way he did, as if it was a benediction, as if it was the answer to every question in existence.

"Oliver," she breathed.

He closed his eyes, as if her voice was a physical caress, and she supposed that at least the Fates were fair in that they were equally affected by the other.

Any lingering doubts she had melted away as she thoughtlessly discarded her clipboard on the nearest flat surface—it might've been a bedpan but she didn't care—her feet carrying her towards him without her really needing to tell them to, like a magnet drawn to its compliment. Oliver's own long strides covered twice the distance hers could, so that they met closer to the door than the window, his hands shaking as they lifted to frame her face.

The moment his calloused palms touched her cheeks Felicity's eyes fluttered shut, and a soft sound, contented yet pained, part moan, whimper and sigh all at once escaped her—had anyone else been there to hear it she would've been utterly humiliated. Even just Oliver bearing witness had her face flooding with heat.

"Felicity," his voice rasped again, prompting her eyes to open. And then his lips were on hers.

She gasped, and he took full advantage of that, slanting his mouth over hers and stroking his tongue over the roof of her mouth. Felicity pitched up on her toes, arms locked around his neck, doing whatever she could to pull herself closer to him, an endeavor he happily aided her in by banding his arms around her waist and hauling her smaller form against his larger one while they refamiliarized themselves with each other's mouths.

Their hands couldn't seem to remain still either, constantly running over each other, reminding themselves of familiar dips and curves. Her fingertips traced over where she knew the arrow Yao Fei had shot Oliver with had twisted the skin of his chest, the raised lines discernible even through the fabric of his T-shirt before searching out other familiar places. Oliver rucked up the back of her shirt and she gasped at the familiar feel of his rough hands back on the sensitive skin there after so long without it, running over her smooth back and sides, before going to the back of her right hip and tracing, from memory, the pattern inked there.

Air became a, regrettably, necessary issue so they were forced to finally tear their lips from each other, both panting heavily as they pressed their foreheads together, neither willing to be completely parted just yet.

"I missed you so much." Felicity's voice wobbled with the tears crowding her eyes.

Oliver cradled her face between his palms, stroking his thumbs over her cheeks. "I missed you too, Felicity, more than anything." He pressed his lips chastely to hers, a loving caress that had the tears cascading down her face. "I love you," he whispered against her temple.

She clutched his shirt in a white-knuckle grip, burying her face in the joint of his neck and shoulder with a shuddering sigh of relief. So much had changed, but not their feelings for each other and she suddenly felt silly for thinking that they could've. "I love you too, Oliver."

Time seemed to stand still as they clung to each other, absorbing every breath, every heartbeat and just reassuring themselves that they were once again together, alive and whole.

Finally, Felicity leaned back slightly, hands rising to cradle his face, taking in the new sensation of his beard now trimmed to little more than stubble, and then running her fingers back through his cropped hair.

Oliver smirked. "You always hated it long."

She grinned back. "Oh, you've never looked better." She carded her fingers through the short strands. "I like your hair best like this. This length."

Amusement alight in his features, he kissed her nose. "Noted."

Felicity giggled, wrinkling her nose against his lips.

He ran his own fingers over her wig, frowning.

"What?" she questioned at his expression.

"You hate your hair brown," Oliver pointed out, knowing her dislike for any shade close to her natural color.

A smirk curved her lips. "Well it is a more common color, less likely to draw attention, and after all…it's only a wig."

His digits traced along the edge, curling underneath slightly.

Felicity clapped a hand over his, stopping him and hissing, "Don't you dare! You have no idea how long it took me to get my hair up into this thing perfectly!"

"But I want to see what your hair looks like now."

How could a grown man pout so adorably? Felicity grinned back at him sassily, draping her arms around his neck. "Well, you're just going to have to come and see me at my office in QC and find out."

Oliver groaned, leaning his head into the crook of her neck and shoulder. "Fine…" He lifted his head, eyes narrowing as he traced a fingertip over the shell of her right ear, zeroing in on the other change she knew he wouldn't like. "And this?" He liked her industrial piercing as much as she did.

Pecking him on the lips, she assured him, "I took it out to come here, just in case anyone in the hospital noticed it, but I'll be putting it back in once I get back home."

His expression relaxed then he dipped his head and pressed a kiss to the spot where the barbell usually was. "Good."

Felicity curled into his arms with a happy sigh, one arm around his shoulders and the other creeping under his shirt to trace the tattoo over his heart, her tattoo, she reminded herself, a smile curving her lips as she traced its familiar curve.

Oliver's face was buried in the crown of her head. "I wish that you could stay."

"Me too," she agreed, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

"Being with you again, finally…" A deep breath escaped him in a whoosh.

She pressed a kiss to his neck. "We'll be back together again soon."

"I know…but…" She could feel the muscles of his jaw flexing against her cheek. "My family will be here soon."

Oh… Her eyes shut as what he wasn't saying sunk in.

"I don't know how—" His voice was rough with too much emotion.

Lifting her head and clasping his face in between her palms, Felicity kissed him fiercely. "I know," she whispered against his lips. She pulled back enough to look at him in the eye. "It'll be hard but…they're your family. They love you and they've waited five years to see you again."

Oliver pressed his forehead to hers. "They'll want Ollie."

Kissing his temple, Felicity shook her head. "They just don't know Oliver yet. But give them time, let them get to know you. They will love you as you are now, Oliver!" Blue eyes gazing directly into his, Felicity made sure he could see the absolute truth of what she was about to say. "I never knew Ollie, but I love Oliver more than I could've ever imagined loving a person."

A tender smile curved his lips, palms framing her face. "Felicity Smoak…you're remarkable."

She grinned impishly up at him. "Thank you for remarking on it."

Chuckling, Oliver pressed his lips to hers in a long, slow, thorough kiss that had her toes curling in her sensible sneakers. "Thank you," he whispered, rubbing his nose against hers.

"Always my pleasure." The genius grinned at him impishly, for once purposely giving him a double-entendre, quickly sealing her lips to his to stop his groan.

Before things could properly head in a direction both were dying for—namely his empty hospital bed, insert hyphen—a loud, annoying beeping issued from her pocket. They pulled apart and Felicity dug her phone out, checking the screen and a grimace crossing her face when she read what was on it.

Her eyes returned to Oliver's, reluctance running through every line of her body. "I have to go, your mother just arrived."

His hands reflexively gripped her hips; it made Felicity's heart ache to see the fear and nerves lining her lover's face so clearly. She grasped the back of his neck, pulling him into one last kiss. "It will all work out. I mean, they're your family, they've loved you your entire life—well, your mom has, Thea I guess it's been her entire life." Felicity shook her head to derail from the impending babble. "It took me a fraction of that to fall in love with you. And that was with the unfortunate hair. They're not gonna stand a chance."

A wry chuckle rumbled from him, "Who am I to argue with Ghost Fox Goddess?"

"Exactly!" she agreed brightly.

She began to move away, but he tightened his grip, reeling her back in for another brief but blistering kiss. When they pulled away, both panting, Oliver rested his forehead against hers. "For luck."

Felicity smiled fondly before pecking him again. "See you soon, my love."

Finger by finger, Oliver released her, longingly watching her move to the door. "Very soon."

The blond genius gave him one last brilliant smile before closing the door behind her, immensely thankful she'd thought to get an apartment with a fire escape just in case of any late night visitors.

-ARROW-

_Three years ago…_

This is the biggest mistake of my life, Felicity Smoak inwardly groaned. Well, technically it was the second…or third…ya know, 'cause there were the mistakes that landed her in this position in the first place and all. She buried her face in her hands with an audible groan this time. She supposed that her downward spiral could be attributed to the loss of Cooper, but creating that virus in the first place… Yeah, probably best to figure she just generally had poor judgment. Boy, had she massively screwed up.

"You have a choice, Ms. Smoak." The woman who'd introduced herself as Amanda Waller smirked at the young woman who had, only moments earlier, been handed her diploma from MIT, summa cum laude. "You can either go to federal prison for the rest of your life…or you can come to work for me and have those little infractions forgotten."

A snort escaped Felicity at the memory. Oh yeah, she had a choice… Some frakkin' choice.

She dragged a hand through her purple-streaked black hair; well, at least she could say she was maintaining her own individuality and sense of style even as she was now trapped by this possibly-or-not government, but definitely off-the-books, black-ops agency. She gave herself a half-hearted mental fist-pump.

Felicity's head snapped up as the door handle rattled, alerting her that someone was coming in. Just as it opened, she leapt to her feet, unsure of who or what—was that ever a cliché—might come through but preferring to be on her feet to face them…or it.

Waller strode in, as striking as ever, looking down on Felicity with that smirk that pissed the hacker off more than she knew she could be. A movement behind the other woman drew Felicity's attention, and her eyebrows shot up her forehead.

Well, she wasn't sure you could get someone any more different from Waller than the person accompanying her. Not only was he male, and thus the opposite of Waller's gender, but he had a long, shaggy blond mane that reached his shoulders with a nearly full beard, his clothes were a T-shirt and cargo pants and beat-up boots; his all-around scruffiness a stark contrast to Waller's perfectly coifed, pressed, business-suited self. And then there was his build, tall and well-muscled, if the corded lines of his arms were anything to go by, versus Waller's—likely deceptively—slender build. But what really caught Felicity's attention was his eyes; sharp, blue, super intense, he couldn't be more than a couple of years older than her, but those eyes…they carried the weight of seeing far too much. Felicity had no qualms admitting to herself that the man was hot, beyond hot, like…light-years beyond hot… Crap, she hoped that her lacking brain to mouth filter didn't let that thought slip through…

"Congratulations," Waller's tone was less congratulatory and more smug, "you two are going to be working together." She gestured between Felicity and the man at her side just inside the door.

"Is this really necessary?" the man growled through gritted teeth, those blue eyes she'd just been admiring gave her a once-over, looking unimpressed by what he saw.

"I think it is," Waller told him, smirk possibly even wider.

"She's a civilian, she'll get in the way," he bit out.

"Excuse me," Felicity snapped, offended. "'She's' right here, and I'm smarter than both of you combined, and can hack into pretty much any network." She tilted her chin up defiantly and, as best she could manage given how much taller he was than her, looked down her nose at him. "I don't even know what you do."

His gaze cut to her sharply. "I beat people and put arrows in them."

Her eyebrows relocated to her hairline, unsure if he was being serious or not.

"And he's quite good at it too," Waller put in; Ada Lovelace, Felicity really hated that smirk.

Well, that answered whether or not he was serious, but arrows…really?!

"What?" Felicity questioned sarcastically. "They run out of the big, scary knives at Rambo school?"

She really should be much more scared of the glare he was giving her right then, what with her knowing that he arrows people and could probably break her in half with his pinky and all, but she was just too pissed-off at his dismissive attitude. And she was definitely not going to pay any attention to the look that screamed "shut up" he was giving her.

"Well, it looks like you two are making friends. I'll just leave you to it." Waller sashayed out the door, leaving the other two occupants of the room to watch her go.

Silence hung heavy for interminable moments.

"So," Felicity began, waiting until the man was done glaring at the door that'd just closed behind Waller, "what's your name?"

Piercing blue eyes snapped to her, gaze shuttered. "Archer," he finally said after a drawn-out pause.

She raised both of her eyebrows at him, head cocking to the side, conveying her disbelief.

His expression gave nothing away. "What's yours?"

"Hacker," she shot back snarkily.

"Listen…"

Was his voice permanently growly or something? Felicity wondered idly.

"…when we're on an op, do as I say and stay out of the way."

Her mouth dropped open, now truly offended. "Hey," she strode forward and poked his chest with one finger, "you should be nicer to me! And you shouldn't underestimate me! With a few keystrokes I can ruin your life!"

His mouth twisted into a bitter facsimile of a smile. "Most of the world, including everyone that I care about, thinks I'm dead…"

Her hand fell to her side, ire fading at his biting but honest admission.

He turned on his heel, starting toward the door. "Not much left to ruin," he tossed over his shoulder.

Felicity continued to stare after Archer long after he'd disappeared through the door. Who the hell was that guy? And what the hell had she gotten herself into?!

-ARROW-

Oliver thought that he might've lost count of the number of times he felt the burning desire to put an arrow in Amanda Waller. He kept thinking that he couldn't hate her more and then she'd go and prove him wrong.

_"I have a new partner for you."_

_Oliver really hated that smirk of hers. "I don't need a new partner," he growled out between his teeth as he followed her down the hallway, shoving thoughts of and guilt over Maseo away. The very last thing he wanted was to get close to anyone else he could get killed, or worse._

_"Maybe not another person with a similar skill set to yours, but that's not what she is. She has a very different skill set. One that I think will be useful. She has a degree in computer science and engineering and is quite the accomplished little hacker."_

_He narrowed his eyes stopping abruptly. "I don't need another person to have to look out for on ops, and I don't need a babysitter, if she's supposed to—"_

_Waller stopped just ahead of him, spinning on the spot to face him. "I think you could use the help for certain aspects of your operations. And while she isn't here completely voluntarily she is cooperating with us for her own reasons. And as for you, you know how this goes, you try to escape, try to contact any of your family or friends, or refuse to work with us…we kill her."_

Oliver didn't know what he was expecting "her" to be like, but the young woman, who looked maybe only a couple years older than his sister would be now—he pushed aside the sudden spike of pain at the thought of Thea—certainly wasn't even in the realm of his imagination. She was perhaps 5 and a half feet tall, maybe less, dwarfed by his own 6'1" frame, long black hair streaked with purple spilling around her shoulders. Her face, likely already fair, was made even paler by makeup and the fluorescent bulbs overhead, causing her dark lipstick to stand out starkly, and her kohl-rimmed, bright blue eyes to really pop. The silver ring in her nose glinted, and he could make out more rings around her ears through her hair, while the cross-like symbol hanging from the cord around her neck shone against the black of her long-sleeved shirt. Her hands—most of the fingers adorned with silver rings—had smoothed down her tan cargo pants nervously, belying the fearless façade she was trying to maintain.

His first thought was that she radiated an innocence, it was perhaps battered and injured but definitely still there… With all of her dark clothing and heavy makeup she looked like a little girl trying to appear tougher than she was, their world would chew her up and spit her out. He actually had to fight to hold onto that determination, that disdain, to that safe distance for the first time in a long time. But there was something about her, something about that innocence that was so very tempting, calling to him like a moth to flame. And then the fire leapt in her eyes, the steel that ran beneath the surface asserted itself, and she glared at him fearlessly… Oliver didn't want to be impressed, didn't want to feel even more drawn to her, but he was and he did, and he knew he had to crush those feelings, ignore them, do whatever he could to get rid of them, because they were dangerous. And not exclusively to him.

For all of the arguing he'd done with Waller to try to keep the girl—Hacker, as she'd told him to call her—out of the field, it'd done nothing. With that same obnoxious smirk, she'd told him to get his ass and Hacker's out on the op, and shoved the folder in his hands.

So that was why he was now standing in this derelict building across the way from their target's building, waiting for the girl to hack the security system.

"So…" Hacker kept her gaze on the screen but watched him out of the corner of her eye, "how did you end up in this indentured servitude?"

Oliver grit his teeth, staring out the window. "I died."

She turned her gaze on him, waiting, and when nothing else was forthcoming she rolled her eyes. "Well, that's illuminating. Tell me," she tapped away on her laptop, "did you ever speak in sentences of more than five words or were you just born monosyllabic?"

Clutching his bow, he glared at her over his shoulder, but it was getting harder and harder to keep her at arms-length even after such a short time. The sassy, sarcastic tech goth beside him was just somehow so…endearing. Oliver shook those thoughts off, he had to keep his distance, for both of their sakes; Waller had a gun pointed at the girl's oblivious head and letting her close would be deadly, for them both.

But that fact, for some reason, still didn't stop the following from leaving his mouth. "How did you get into Waller's crosshairs?"

Her own expression shuttered. "I wasn't being careful enough while hacking the wrong system…ARGUS' to be precise." She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, eyes still focused on the screen. "They had other dirt on me as well. It was this or federal prison."

"Not sure you made the right choice there."

"Yeah, I'm getting that now," Hacker snarked back. Her computer beeped. "Got it!" She typed away a bit longer before snapping the lid of her laptop shut, shoving it into her backpack and swinging it across her shoulders as she stood. "We're in."

Oliver had to work hard to hold in his grimace at that, taking her elbow and directing her toward the door, hating the necessity that forced him to bring her—a weaponless, untrained asset—into a building that had dozens of guards armed to the teeth. "Stay close to me and don't speak unless I tell you it's all right," he rapped out the orders, ignoring her glare. "We don't want to draw any unnecessary attention."

"Fine, bossy," Hacker huffed, but still allowed him to direct her from the room, down the hall and out of the building.

He guided her toward the building across the street by way of every shadow and object they could conceal themselves behind. She was ungainly, movements choppy—God, he hoped no one was watching from any windows, even in the dark her sharp movements would draw attention—and Oliver kept her behind him as best he could. They reached the back of the building, he scanned the ledge above them for the spot he knew…there! Drawing a very specific arrow, he nocked it and drew back, aiming with the same speed and accuracy the island had burned into his muscle memory. The grappling line gripped in his hand, Oliver tucked his bow into the holder on his back and reached out with his now-free arm for the young woman beside him.

Her kohl-lined eyes were as large as saucers as she looked up at him. "Please tell me you aren't going to do what I think you're going to do?!"

Pressing his lips into a thin line, he glared at her.

"Are you out of your arrowing mind?!" she whisper-screeched.

He didn't budge, just intensified his glare.

Hacker's jaw set and she met his look mulishly, hands clinging to the straps of her bag.

They stood there locked in a stalemate for long moments.

"This or federal prison," Oliver finally ground out between gritted teeth.

After another moment of stubbornly compressing her lips, finally she huffed and stepped toward him. "Fine."

As he wrapped his arm around her waist, Oliver tried very hard to ignore the feeling of her pressed against him—he hadn't let himself think of any woman like that since his brief affair with Shado—her own arms tightly encircling his neck. He noticed how she was trembling and her eyes darted around; she was scared, not of him, but of what they were about to do, and in all honesty he was asking her to put a rather substantial level of trust in him when they quite obviously didn't have any to split between them.

"I've done this before," he told her gruffly, trying to reassure her somewhat. "Just hold onto me tightly."

"You know," Hacker remarked in a wavering voice, eyeing the ledge above their heads, "I always imagined a super-hot guy saying that to me under different circumstances."

He turned his head to look at her, her own whipped to meet his gaze, eyes wide and cheeks pink. "Purely platonic…circumstances." she quickly added.

It took a few moments before he could break their stare, eyes focusing back on his task. "Hold on," he mumbled once more, and he felt her arms tighten around his neck.

-ARROW-

Felicity wished she could say that she maintained a stoic silence through the experience, but a small "eep" escaped her as they were abruptly lifted off the ground by the ascension device. To muffle any further noises, she pressed her face into the joint of his neck and shoulder—and nope, she most definitely wasn't going to think about how his skin felt pressed against her cheek or how good he smelled. She felt herself slide a little, but it couldn't have been more than an inch, those muscles that she could feel under Archer's clothes obviously weren't just for show, the corded strength of his arm around her waist keeping her relatively immobilized against his side. Her own hands had a death-grip on his neck and she refused to look down.

Archer curved his body in a way so that he could hook his feet on the wide ledge of a tall window on the top floor. "Put your feet on the ledge," he breathed into her ear.

Felicity had to bite back the shiver that wanted to cascade down her spine, reminding herself that this was seriously not the time for such inconvenient feelings and that he was only trying to stay as quiet as possible. She stretched her feet out to do as he instructed, managing to get the toes of her black high-top Converses on the surface, with some fumbling and shuffling and Archer's own form drawing her forward she was able to get her soles on it entirely. However, even with her feet now on a flat plane she knew she wouldn't be able to get herself fully onto the ledge with her admittedly lacking musculature.

That became a moot issue when Archer used his own strength to pull them both upright on the ledge, bracing them, her body between his and the window, in the small space.

The computer specialist was acutely aware of the fact that all that separated her from the ten-story sheer drop was a stretch of cement no wider than her feet were long, and Archer's body. It was terrifying, but soon Felicity found that there was absolutely no give in his frame, even as she swayed against him he didn't budge an inch, and something in her somehow immediately relaxed, trusting him not to let her fall.

Archer pulled something out of a pocket and reached around her, looking over her shoulder she could just barely make out his black-gloved hands using shiny implements on what appeared to be the lock. After a few seconds there was a click and he pushed the window open. "Get in," he instructed, and for once she was most happy to oblige his orders.

Felicity let out a sigh of relief when her feet were planted on the nice, solid, non-sheer-drop-off floor of the office. He swung himself into the room, landing on the floor with hardly a sound—damn ninja skills, she inwardly grumbled—and lowered the window just enough that it appeared closed to a quick scan, but made sure it was just shy of closing—man, Felicity wasn't looking forward to the eventuality of using that as their escape-route. Going up had been bad enough, going down…she was in very real danger of vomiting on quite possibly the hottest man she'd ever met. Lovely.

"Let's go," she quickly said before he could—yes, it was petty, but she'd take her kicks where she could get them.

He held her back from the door, forcing her behind him, much to her annoyance. Archer met her glare with one of his own, mouthing "wait" before inching carefully up to the door, he turned the handle with such care and eased it open slowly, smoothly, keeping them both pressed against the wall as he scanned the hallway outside. Felicity mentally huffed, but reluctantly admitted to herself that he was the better of the two of them to lead since he knew how to sneak around and be all tactical. Finally, Archer drew her out of the room with him, closing the door soundlessly behind them before leading the way down the hall to their destination, a room cut off from the network but still drawing an obscene amount of power.

They reached the door they were looking for, its keypad lock the only security measure in the building still actually working, since she'd shut down the rest of the system—though the building security thought that it was still operational since she'd made sure it would look like it was, however this particular measure was on a system all its own. Felicity bent over by the pad and went to work. Archer stood behind her, his back to hers keeping a look-out while she was preoccupied with hacking the lock. Carefully opening the pad she studied the wiring and circuitry, finally taking a couple of cords from her backpack along with her precious laptop—it was a very nice computer they'd handed to her before Waller sent them out on the op (look at her getting all tactical with her lingo) and she was going to call him K-9 if they let her hang onto him—and connected her computer to the pad.

"How long?" Archer's voice was barely even audible to her.

"Three minutes," she whispered back, fingers flying over the keys on her computer, "tops."

Tension had Oliver's body strung tighter than his bowstring. They were too exposed. It was a long, straight hallway, stretching out on both sides of them, with no cover and no external windows…no escape. His ears pricked to a soft sound.

Footsteps.

Getting closer.

"Hacker…" he growled out the warning under his breath, glancing back at her as he drew an arrow.

Her own eyes had flicked in the direction of the approaching noise, worry visible, though her fingers never paused. "Patience is a virtue…" she told him in a soft, sing-song voice.

Nocking the arrow and drawing it back, he gritted his teeth. "Not right now it isn't."

A choked sound escaped her before she stifled it and then her breath caught at a soft beep. "We're in."

Oliver kept the arrow aimed in the direction of the approaching enemy, behind him Hacker closed her laptop and pulled the cord from the pad, slapping it closed, before pushing the door open. He backed into the room behind her and carefully closed the door, gripping her arm, not letting her move for a few moments while he listened.

The footsteps grew closer and closer…then passed the door without pausing. Oliver released a relieved breath, finally letting go of Hacker's arm and replacing the arrow in his quiver.

She made a show of glaring at him and rubbing her arm—unnecessarily, he knew he hadn't gripped it hard enough to hurt—before heading over to a terminal on a desk in the middle of the room full of…computer stuff. Yeah, Oliver had no illusions about the limits on his technological know-how, and there certainly had been very little use for it on the island so he was far behind current technology.

Hacker immediately went to work, typing away before pulling from her bag what she'd informed him, in an exceedingly patronizing voice, was an external hard drive and plugging it in. "This should only take a couple of minutes," she murmured, anticipating his question.

Still gripping his bow, he kept his gaze on the door. This room wasn't as exposed as the hall with the towering shelves to hide behind, but the walls were impervious to his explosive arrows, leaving them no other way out. If guards got in here it'd be shooting fish in a barrel and they'd both be too dead for him to worry about getting close to her or anyone ever again.

"Ok," Hacker finally said, "that's all saved, now to erase all evidence we were ever here…"

Oliver was growing antsier with every second that passed with them still in this building.

"Done!" She pumped a fist in the air—he really shouldn't find that as adorable as he did.

Barely giving her enough time to shove the cords, hard drive and laptop into her backpack, Oliver grabbed her arm and pulled her over to the door, cracking it the barest amount.

"You know, you could just get a dog if you have this desperate need to lead someone around all day," she groused under her breath.

After several moments of listening closely for any noise, he fully opened the door as stealthily as possible. With the same caution he'd exercised the entire night, Oliver led Hacker through the door and out into the hall. On quiet footsteps—hers a little less so, but then that wasn't exactly her fault, he admitted to himself, since she'd never learned how to move as quietly as Oliver had been forced to—they moved as quickly as possible back to the room with their escape route.

There was the loud clicking of a gun cocking from behind them and shouts in Mandarin.

Oliver yanked Hacker to the ground with him and, as he spun to face the threat, dragged her behind him, the bullets from the guards' weapons whizzing by above their heads. Oliver could already see them adjusting their aim, but the island had taught him to be faster. The first arrow was embedded in the nearest guard before their next round of gunfire had gotten even half a foot closer to Oliver and Hacker, with two more arrows following in rapid succession dropping two others. This made the other guards, further away down the hall, more cautious and they ducked into rooms for cover. The time it took them to open the doors and get in bought the pair enough time for Hacker to open the nearest door with outside access and for them to duck inside. They locked the door before running over to the windows; this wasn't the same room as earlier, Oliver opened the window and stuck his head outside to glance in the direction of where his rig should be. It was one window over. He pulled his head back in and turned to Hacker who was white knuckling the straps of her backpack. "You're going to hate this."

Her eyebrows shot up. "More than how we got in?"

"We're going to have to climb from this window to the one next door."

Oliver was fairly certain she paled more than under the fluorescents before and her eyes flew wider. "Are you—" The sound of pounding on the door followed by bullets being shot at it cut her off and had her surging toward Oliver. "Let's go!"

He boosted her through the window first, making sure she was steady enough before following her out. They shuffled as quickly as was safely possible along the ledges, Oliver trying to keep an arm across her back to help steady her. When they came to the gap between the window they were on and the one next door, she froze.

"Hacker, don't look down!"

"Too late!"

He cursed fluently.

Just then Oliver could hear the guards bursting through the door in the other room. No time. He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her, her own arms wrapping around his neck instinctively. "Hold on tight." He lunged the remaining distance, grabbing the grappling line as he did so, his feet barely had time to touch the other ledge before he pushed them off.

The terrified scream that escaped Hacker was muffled in his shoulder and blown away in the rush of air as they rapidly descended. The moment their feet touched the road, Oliver was already running, dragging Hacker with him, all the while shielding her as best he could from the bullets and ricochets.

"Keep going," he shouted in her ear once she'd found her feet and didn't need him practically carrying her.

She was doing a fair job of keeping up, but he could tell she was flagging. They needed an out now.

As if conjured by his thoughts, a dark SUV screeched to a halt in front of them then the door flung open and an agent he recognized shouted, "Get in!"

The pair dove into the vehicle, Oliver slamming the door shut behind them before they both slumped into their seats, panting, as the SUV took off, tires squealing.

"So," Hacker began conversationally between heaving breaths, "is it…always…like this?"

Oliver just about had his breathing back under control. "Pretty much."

"Fantastic. Is it too late to sign up for federal prison?"

-ARROW-

So... How did you like it? I know it wasn't entirely new, but I hope that the new parts were good and worth the wait! Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think!


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